Qualcomm, one of the major suppliers of chips and modems in telephones, predicts that telephone sales will fall much more than expected in 2022 due to the uncertain economic environment, according to the latest publication on Wednesday.
“Given the uncertainty caused by the macroeconomic environment, we are updating our forecast for the calendar year 2022 3G/4G/5G handset volumes from an annualized mid-single digit percentage decline to a low two-digit percentage decline,” Qualcomm wrote:. The company also says that “rapid deterioration in demand” and “easing of supply constraints” in the semiconductor industry have led to increased inventory and Qualcomm’s largest customers are running out of inventory.
The company’s updated guidelines appear to indicate that sluggish phone sales could continue during the critical holiday season. In a slide deckQualcomm said there is “about 8-10 weeks of increased inventory” and the company expects the problem to “take a few quarters to work itself through.” Qualcomm’s shares are down more than 6 percent in after-hours trading at the time of writing.